In the Latter Day Saint movement, the Heavenly Mother, also known as the Mother in Heaven, is the mother of human spirits and the wife of God the Father. Collectively Heavenly Mother and Father are called Heavenly Parents. Those who accept the Mother in Heaven doctrine trace its origins to Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. The doctrine became more widely known after Smith's death in 1844.
Eliza Roxcy Snow was one of the most celebrated Latter Day Saint women of the nineteenth century. A renowned poet, she chronicled history, celebrated nature and relationships, and expounded scripture and doctrine. Snow was married to Joseph Smith as a plural wife and was openly a plural wife of Brigham Young after Smith's death. Snow was the second general president of the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which she reestablished in Utah Territory in 1866. She was also the sister of Lorenzo Snow, the church's fifth president.
Orson Ferguson Whitney, born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1906 until his death.
Parley Parker Pratt Sr. was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement whose writings became a significant early nineteenth-century exposition of the Latter Day Saint faith. Named in 1835 as one of the first members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Pratt was part of the Quorum's successful mission to Great Britain from 1839 to 1841. Pratt has been called "the Apostle Paul of Mormonism" for his promotion of distinctive Mormon doctrines.
William H. Clayton was a clerk, scribe, and friend to the religious leader Joseph Smith. Clayton, born in England, was also an American pioneer journalist, inventor, lyricist, and musician. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1837 and served as the second counselor to the British mission president Joseph Fielding while proselyting in Manchester. He led a group of British converts in emigrating to the United States in 1840 and eventually settled in Nauvoo, Illinois, where he befriended Joseph Smith and became his clerk and scribe. He was a member of the Council of Fifty and Smith's private prayer circle.
Mormon poetry is poetry written by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about spiritual topics or themes. Mormons have a long history of writing poetry relevant to their religious beliefs and to the Mormon experience. Mormon poetry, like Mormon fiction, has experienced different periods throughout the LDS Church's history, including the "home literature" period and the "lost generation." Some Mormon poetry became church hymns.
Saints (1984) is a historical fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card. It tells the story of the fictional protagonist, Dinah Kirkham, a native of Manchester, England, who immigrates to the United States and becomes one of the plural wives of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.
Joel Hills Johnson was a Latter-day Saint missionary and hymn writer, known for being the author of "High on the Mountain Top". Johnson was also the founder of Enoch, Utah, and the founder of the ghosttown Johnson, Utah.
Emily Hill Woodmansee was an English-born American Mormon poet and hymnwriter. Although only one of her hymns "As Sisters In Zion" is included in the 1985 LDS English language edition of the LDS Church's hymnbook, previous LDS Church hymnbooks have included more of her works.
Susan Evans McCloud is an American novelist, author, poet, hymnwriter, and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Association for Mormon Letters (AML) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1976 to "foster scholarly and creative work in Mormon letters and to promote fellowship among scholars and writers of Mormon literature." Other stated purposes have included promoting the "production and study of Mormon literature" and the encouragement of quality writing "by, for, and about Mormons." The broadness of this definition of LDS literature has led the AML to focus on a wide variety of work that has sometimes been neglected in the Mormon community. It publishes criticism on such writing, hosts an annual conference, and offers awards to works of fiction, poetry, essay, criticism, drama, film, and other genres. It published the literary journal Irreantum from 1999 to 2013 and currently publishes an online-only version of the journal, which began in 2018. The AML's blog, Dawning of a Brighter Day, launched in 2009. As of 2012, the association also promotes LDS literature through the use of social media. The AML has been described as an "influential proponent of Mormon literary fiction."
Emma Lou Warner Thayne was a poet and novelist. She was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and counted as one of the 75 most significant Mormon poets.
Karen Lynn Davidson (1943–2019) was a Latter-day Saint hymn writer, author, and literary critic. Davidson wrote widely on the hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and of the Community of Christ.
Benson Young Parkinson is a Latter-day Saint novelist, literary critic, and biographer. He has published two novels concerning fictional LDS missionaries, entitled The MTC: Set Apart and Into the Field, as well as a biography of S. Dilworth Young, an LDS general authority. In the mid-1990s he became involved in the Association for Mormon Letters (AML), primarily by creating an email forum for the discussion of LDS literature called AML-List, for which he was awarded the 2000 AML Award for Criticism. Parkinson then co-founded the literary journal Irreantum and served as co-editor for a year. His criticism of LDS literature has been featured in multiple publications. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University.
Marilyn Arnold is an American emeritus professor of English at Brigham Young University (BYU). She served as assistant to President Dallin H. Oaks and as dean of graduate studies.
Mary Lythgoe Bradford was an American editor and poet significant to Mormon literature. She was the editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought from 1978 to 1983, edited Mormon Women Speak (1982), and was included on the "75 Significant Mormon Poets" list compiled by Gideon Burton and Sarah Jenkins. She was the first Mormon critic to engage on a scholarly level with the work of Virginia Sorensen and has written about other authors such as Lowell L. Bennion. Her work has appeared in many religious and regional magazines, journals, and anthologies.
Jessica Day George is an American author who lives in Utah. She is a New York Times bestselling author of Young Adult fantasy novels, and she received the 2007 Whitney Award for Best Book by a New Author for Dragon Slippers. Having attended Brigham Young University (BYU), George is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A Believing People: Literature of the Latter-day Saints, edited by Richard H. Cracroft and Neal E. Lambert, and published in 1974, was "the first significant anthology of the literature of the Latter-day Saints" and began the establishment of the field of Mormon literature as a legitimate discipline, and remains, according to A Motley Vision in 2012, " the only comprehensive Mormon Literature anthology ever published." Cracroft and Lambert released an anthology with a more modern focus, 22 Young Mormon Writers, the following year.
Jack Aaron Harrell is an American fiction writer, essayist, and English professor at Brigham Young University–Idaho.
Heavenly Parents is the term used in Mormonism to refer collectively to the divine partnership of God the Father and the Heavenly Mother who are believed to be parents of human spirits. The concept traces its origins to Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.
